Former Test captains Mark Taylor and Richie Benaud went into bat for Ricky Ponting's "defensive" Australian team tonight, saying Zaheer Khan's attack on the tourists was misplaced and designed to spice up the four-match series in India.
Taylor rejected Zaheer's claim that Australia were on the back foot, unable to score at their unusual fast rate and lacked the bowling attack to take the 20 wickets required to beat India in a Test match.
Benaud suggested Khan's criticism of Ponting's captaincy may come back to bite the Indians, who held out for a draw in the first Test in Bangalore, thanks largely to Zaheer's first-innings 57 not out and his 80-run partnership with Harbhajan Singh (54).
"I think Zaheer, he's spicing things up, based on one Test match," Taylor said at the launch of the book 'Icons of World Sport - Don Bradman' at the SCG.
"Australia's scoring rate in that Test match was slow for the way they play, yes. But you can't base comments on one Test match.
"What I would say is that both sides in the first Test over there were fairly conservative. It was almost like a bout where they were just feeling each other out.
"Australia had plenty of batsmen, as did India, and when Australia won the toss on the first day, they made 250. (Then a total of) 430 runs off 150 overs, which, for an Australian side is generally fairly slow.
"Having said that, I think Ricky would quite rightfully turn around and say that had Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh not put on the best part of a hundred on day three of that Test match, Australia would well have won it.
"Look, now that both sides know where they're at, we'll see a little bit more aggression come out of both sides."
Benaud and Taylor are renowned as two of Australia's more attacking captains and both insisted Ponting's tactics had not been "defensive" in Bangalore, as Zaheer claimed during his man-of-the-match speech.
"No, it wasn't defensive," Benaud said.
"Ricky's a good captain. Ricky's only had one setback and that was in England in 2005 and he came back from that and demolished England in the Ashes out here.
"I think he's a good captain and I admire his captaincy.
Taylor said he still had faith that Australia possessed the attack to hit back and win the series.
"I have. I think in the right conditions, they have," he said.
"(Legspinner) Cameron White bowled well at times - picked up Tendulkar - and Mitchell Johnson bowled well at times, as did Shane Watson.
"I think Johnson and Watson, to me, are the ones that really need to do well in this series. And in the first Test, they've done well with the ball.
"So that will give them confidence going in. If (Brett) Lee, (Stuart) Clark can bowl to the best of their ability and Australia can manufacture some wickets out of the Cameron Whites, the Michael Clarkes, well then I think they're a chance of taking the 20 wickets and winning the game."
